Forget Russia - Here's How Much Israel Is
Spending to Influence American Politics
" ... somehow and in some way, that's
different than the allegations of Russian
"influence" during the 2016 cycle."

By Political Junkie

November 24, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- While the American media and Washington
are expending substantial energy on the
alleged Russian interference in the United
States political theatre during the 2016
election cycle, another nation and its
American promoters that invest substantially
in Washington generally fly under the radar
when it comes to political
influence-peddling.

Over the two and a half decades, Democrat
candidates received $83.16 million or 62
percent of the total compared to $49.95
million or 38 percent of the total for
Republican candidates. As shown on this
table, while the majority of the long-term
benefits have gone to the Democrats, that
amount has varied from a low of 49 percent
in 2006 to a high of 75 percent in 1994:

As
well, the pro-Israel "industry" has ranked
between 27th and 60th place in a field of
more than 80 other industries when it comes
to their political contribution generosity.

Obviously, the pro-Israel "industry" is not
a massive
donor like
the Securities and Investment, Real Estate
and Legal industries but it is still a
substantial player in Washington when it
comes to "buying" political influence
through political donations.

Here is
a listing of the major pro-Israel sector
donors during the 2016 election cycle:

Here is a graphic showing more detail on how
the donations from the pro-Israel sector
were split in the 2016 election cycle:

And, lest we forget, here are
the individuals who benefited the most from
the pro-Israel sector's generosity during
the 2016 election cycle:

Look who appears at the top of the list -
none other than Democratic candidate,
Hillary Clinton!

Interestingly, Donald Trump does not even
appear on the list of the luckiest
recipients, in fact, he receive a mere
$69,730 from the pro-Israel sector as you
can see on this
list of
presidential candidates:

Let's look at the other side of political
influencing in Washington, that of lobbying.
Here is
a graphic showing how much the pro-Israel
sector has spent on lobbying on an annual
basis since 1998:

The
latest election year saw the greatest amount
spent by the pro-Israel sector with
$4,537,343 spent in 2016. A decade ago, that
amount was only $1,779,535 or about 39
percent of the spending in 2016.

Here are the six clients that represented
the pro-Israel sector in 2013:

Not
surprisingly, the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee or AIPAC was responsible
for the vast majority of the pro-Israel
spending on getting legislators to see
things Israel's way in 2013.

Here is
a list of the 23 lobbyists that represented
Israel's interests in Washington during
2016:

Of
the 23 reported lobbyists, 4 or 17.4 percent
are classified as "revolvers", that
is, former federal employees who are now
employed as lobbyists. It's interesting to
see that at least one of the "revolvers",
Gordon Bradley, has been employed as a
political analyst by the Central
Intelligence Agency, and has served on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee twice
prior to his employment by AIPAC in 1995. He
obviously has an inside track to influencing
decision-makers.

In
closing, let's switch gears for a moment.
According to the Jewish Virtual Library,
since 1949, U.S. foreign aid to Israel has
totaled $129.808 billion with $79.823
billion of that being military aid and
$30.897 being economic aid. Military aid has
steadily risen from around $300 million
annually in the early 1970s to $3.1 billion
annually in the period between 2013 and
2017. There is no about; Washington is a big
investor in Israel.

Obviously, Israel has a great deal of
interest in what happens in Washington, so
much so that the pro-Israel "industry" is
willing to spend tens of millions of dollars
to "influence" elections and lobby Congress
to stay on the good side of its long-term
American benefactor.

But, somehow and in some way, that's
different than the allegations of Russian
"influence" during the 2016 cycle.

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